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Obstacle-negotiation performance on challenging terrain for a parallel leg-wheeled robot

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Abstract

High obstacle-negotiation performance of quadruped robots for the challenging terrain is strongly demanded in some fields, including payload delivery and disaster relief. In this study, a parallel leg-wheeled robot with the high mobility performance on targeted types of rough terrain is proposed. In contrast to other obstacle-negotiating robots, the strength of this robot is that it has adequate over-obstacle capabilities with a horizontal body in terms of different obstacle shapes, which mainly derives from the multi-DOF (degree of freedom) flexible locomotion of legs and the independent actuated wheels as end effectors. Particularly for a steep terrain where a large inertia robot negotiates it with low efficiency and stability, the proposed step-over gait, combined with static gait and wheeled locomotion, improves the over-obstacle efficiency and maintains pose stability. Finally, simulations and experiments verify the performance on negotiating the diverse obstacles with level body over challenging terrain.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by National Science Foundation of China (No. 61773060).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, School of Automation, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, 100081, China

    Kang Xu, Shoukun Wang, Binkai Yue, Junzheng Wang, Fei Guo & Zhihua Chen

  2. Key Laboratory of Intelligent Control and Decision of Complex System, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, 100081, China

    Kang Xu, Shoukun Wang & Junzheng Wang

Authors
  1. Kang Xu
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  2. Shoukun Wang
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  4. Junzheng Wang
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Correspondence to Kang Xu.

Additional information

Recommended by Editor Ja Choon Koo

Kang Xu received the B.S. degree in Mechatronic Engineering from Yancheng Institute of Technology in China in 2014. He also obtained the M.S. degree in Mechatronics Engineering from Beijing Information Science and Technology University. He is currently a Ph.D. student at School of Automation, Beijing Institute of Technology, China. His research interests include robot motion control, motion planning.

Shoukun Wang received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Department of Automation, from Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China, in 1999, 2002, 2004 respectively. He has entered in Department of Electronics and Computer Engineering, the Purdue University, West Lafayette, USA as a visiting scholar.

He has been teaching at the School of Automation, Beijing Institute of Technology since 2004. His research interests include sensor, measurement, and electro-hydraulic control. He has participated in over 30 scientific research projects since 2001, which mainly belong to measurement and servo control.

Junzheng Wang received the Ph.D. degree from the Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China in 1994. He is the Dean of the School of Automation and the Deputy Director of the Key Laboratory of Intelligent Control and Decision of Complex Systems, Beijing Institute of Technology, where he is a Professor and Ph.D. Supervisor. His current research interests include motion control, static and dynamic performance testing of electric and electric hydraulic servo system and dynamic target detection and tracking based on image technology.

Zhihua Chen received the B.S. degree in mechanical design and manufacture and its automation from Jiujiang University in China in 2015. He also obtained the M.S. degree in Mechatronics Engineering from Beijing Information Science and Technology University. He is currently a Ph.D. student at School of Automation, Beijing Institute of Technology, China. His research interests are robot motion control, adaptive robust control.

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Xu, K., Wang, S., Yue, B. et al. Obstacle-negotiation performance on challenging terrain for a parallel leg-wheeled robot. J Mech Sci Technol 34, 377–386 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-019-1237-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-019-1237-6

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